Frost
by rubydesires
Summary: Ariel's abilities have gone more than a little haywire, through no fault of her own.  She goes to the Sanctury in the hopes that they can help her, and Henry and Tesla try to find out who is responsible for it.
1. Prologue

**AN:** Woot! Since y'all like Ariel, I've written more. Figured I'd start with her coming to the Sanctuary. I think the main characters will be Ariel, Henry, and Nikola. Of course, the others will show up and whatnot. Also, this is set in Season Three, but before the Hollow Earth Arc…

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

_She needed help._

_Otherwise, she'd die._

_There was only one place she could go, one place that could take her in._

**xxx**

Henry wanted to run some tests out in the courtyard, only because he didn't want anything to get blown up in the lab. He needed some space that didn't have any expensive equipment.

And the ex-vampire had decided he wanted to come with.

Great.

"Honestly, Tiny Tim, I don't understand why you insist on doing this outside."

Henry glared at Tesla and shifted his hold on the drone. He was doing it outside incase bad things happened with the remote piloting, thus resulting in the drone crashing and burning. But he wasn't going to explain that to the skinny egomaniac. Instead he said, "Would you mind getting the door?"

Tesla stared at him in mock indignation. "Do I look like a servant, child? Does this suit say 'butler'? I don't think so. But since you have your hands full of a fun new weapon, I suppose I'll help in the menial tasks." He quickened his pace a half-step and opened the door. However, the doorway wasn't empty. A woman, maybe a year younger than Henry, was standing in the threshold. Despite it being late summer, her lips were blue and her skin had more than just a hint of the cool color. She was shaking violently and her teeth were chattering.

"H-h-h-help…m-m-me. Pl-please." Her legs gave way and Tesla caught her. He pulled her inside and looked at Henry.

"I think play time is going to have to wait."

* * *

**AN:** This is the prologue. That's why it's short. More shall come, and thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 1

**AN:** I told you there would be more. This isn't nearly as long as I wanted it to be, but whatev. This chapter did what it was meant to do. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Tesla had his hand tangled in her thick blond mane of hair and his other arm was across her shoulders. Will had a hold of her wrists, while the Big Guy held down her thighs. The three were trying to keep her shaking to a minimum so Magnus could get the IV in her arm. Magnus took a pair of scissors and cut the girl's shirt up the middle to put the sensor pads on her skin so they could record her vitals. Once the EKG machine started beeping, Magnus glanced at the various numbers.

"Magnus?" Will asked and she turned to him. "Her body temp is 87. She'll be dead if it drops much more."

"Her heart rate's slowing. . . .Nikola? See if you can get her to talk." She grabbed a syringe and filled it before injecting it into her IV.

Tesla looked at her for a moment before turning his attention to the girl. "Hey, can you hear me?" Her eyes opened, a thin ring of light brown around her dilated pupils. "What happened?" A wave of violent shaking overtook her and she closed her eyes again, clenching her teeth. A moment passed and her body went still, her skin blue, lips purple, and angular features smooth. The ex-vamp looked at the EKG readings. The temperature had dropped to 79 and her pulse had slowed to 42. "Helen!"

But Magnus was staring at the IV. Ice was forming inside, and it quickly made its way up the tube. She watched the tiny shards of water coat the inside of the saline bag. Magnus glanced down at the girl before she looked at Tesla.

"She's a cryokinetic."

"She's a what?" Will asked.

Tesla rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Helen, could you have possibly found someone stupider to be your protégé? Ice, William. She can control ice."

Will glared at him, but Magnus intervened before they could start an argument. "And she's lost control over it."

"N . . . no. . . I haven't."

They looked down at the girl. She had started shivering again, but she was still blue.

"They did something," she managed to say, her words slurred. "I can't turn it off. They injected . . . something. Can't . . . ."

**xxx**

Magnus had the Big Guy carry her to one of the containment rooms, frost forming on his fur where her hands had gripped him, and she had all but collapsed once he set her down. She laid on the floor, both palms out flat and ice had begun to cover the room. Tesla and Henry stood outside the room, looking in on her through the window.

"What happened?" Henry asked when the silence became too much for him.

The skinny wino glanced at him. "The working theory is someone injected our Ice Princess with a drug cocktail, causing her ability to go into hyper drive. She couldn't stop it, so instead of freezing everything around her, she turned it on herself. You know what she is, right? The implications? Well, she can withstand lower temperatures than any other human and most abnormals."

"So she was freezing herself?"

"Yes. She knew she could handle it until she got here for help."

"Now what?"

"We let her freeze the room until the drug has run its course."

**xxx**

A few hours later, the two returned to check on her. She was sitting up, and she didn't look like she was freezing from the inside anymore. Henry punched in some numbers and unlocked the door to let them in. When they entered, the girl looked up and stood.

"Hey," she said after a moment.

"Hi. How are you felling?" Henry asked her.

"Tired, but I'll be okay."

"That's good. The doc wants you to stay a few more days to make sure everything is okay. If you want, you can have one of the rooms in the upper levels."

She smiled and plucked at her cut shirt. "That'd be great, but could I maybe go back to my hotel so I can get my clothes?"

"Yeah, of course," Henry said with a grin. "Give me about twenty minutes and I can take you. My name's Henry Foss, by the way."

Before the girl could respond, Tesla finally managed to get a word in. "I'm Nikola Tesla," he said with a slight bow.

"Ariel Hawke."

* * *

**AN:** I hope the next chapter will be longer.


	3. Chapter 2

**AN:** Daaaaaammmmmnnnnn. Why is this so freakin' short? Gods. I guess it's cuz I don't have much going on. Anyway, mucho graciases to my reviewers for taking the time to review. Reviews are like crack. xD I looooooove reviews, and they let me know if you like what I'm doing. Cuz if you didn't like it, I wouldn't do it. xD Okay, that's not entirely true. Story alerts make me write more, too. But I love reviews. So again, arigato gozaimasu! And of course, thanks to my readers. ;)

* * *

Henry and Ariel rode in silence to the two-story hotel she was staying at. Ariel sucked at small talk, so she just kept her eyes on the windshield. Henry would glance at her occasionally, noticing how tense she was.

"Thanks," she finally said.

Henry blinked and looked at her. "For what?"

"For letting me use one of your shirts."

"Oh! No problem."

They were silent once again. Henry wanted to ask her what had happened, but he figured it was kinda traumatic and he was willing to let it wait until she was ready. When they got to the hotel, Ariel had gone into the front office to tell the manager of her temporary living arrangements, and that she'd contact him when she needed to come back. Henry followed her to her room and wandered around the space as she grabbed her things. Eventually, he simply stood in the kitchenette, leaning against the counter, with his hands in his pocket.

"So, uh," he said after a moment. "Where you from?"

She glanced at him, and then returned her attention to the dresser drawers. "Arizona."

"Seriously? I thought it would have been somewhere in Ireland."

"My parents are from Dublin. I've never actually been to Ireland. I was born in Texas and moved to Arizona when I was six."

"Cool. What are you doing up here?"

"I was here for a month long internship. I just got my Bachelor's Degree so I was asked to come up here to work on a project." She dropped her suitcase on the bed and grabbed the black ankle boots on the floor and put them in as well. "Didn't know I'd be the project, though."

Henry stared at her as angrily shoved a portable DVD player, some movies, an iPod, and a few books into the bag. "They were experimenting on you?"

"Yeah! I show up this morning to work on what I had been told was the project and had been working on for the past two weeks, and the fuckers hit me with chloroform. I wake up and I'm freezing the damn chair they got me strapped to."

"How'd you escape?"

She blinked and looked at him, her anger gone. "I can't remember. I can't really remember anything. Probably because I was busy trying to keep my brains from freezing. I do know I was in the warehouse district. Other than that, though." Ariel paused. "And I remember you . . . and the other one. Nikola. You two were at the door, and you helped me."

Henry smiled and walked over to her. "We'll find out what happened to you."

"Thanks. For everything."

"Don't worry about it."

Henry was going to find them. And then he was going to hurt them.

* * *

**AN:** Lol Nik tried to get into this chapter, but I told him no and was quiet forceful about it. He'll fo sho be in the next one, though. Which will probably be the last one. But then there will be a sequel! Yaaaaay!

One other thing. I'm a co-founder for a Sanctuary Literature group over on deviantART. We need some members, so if you're interested, join us! I'd give the link, but hates links. The group name is Sanctuary-Literature.


	4. Chapter 3

**AN:** Oh look, some length. Lol. This turned out a little more graphic in the violence department (not my most graphic, though xD ) cuz I needed an emotional outlet. My grandfather passed away today and I found out just before I continued working on this, so yeah. That's why it changed. Thanks to my reviews and readers.

* * *

Henry could understand Tesla being with him in the lab while he was working, but right now, he had no idea _why_ the guy had to tag along! A low growl rumbled in the back of his throat as he glared at the former vampire. He didn't understand why Tesla had such an interest in Ariel. It wasn't like she could turn him back into a vampire or help him achieve world domination. Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Since she had majored in Cell Biology and Genetics, she could help him get his vampirism back, which would result in a better chance of world domination.

But that didn't change the fact Henry was not pleased with Tesla acting as his vengeance partner. So Henry ignored him while they walked around the side of the warehouse district closest to the Sanctuary trying to pick up Ariel's scent.

"Well?"

"I'm looking. Y'know, I didn't ask you to come with. If you're bored, you can leave."

"No need to get snippy, Tiny Tim. And I'm _not_ leaving. Not until we find them."

Henry stopped and glared at him. Tesla had taken a few steps before he realized Henry had stopped and he turned to look at him, hand on his waist. He raised a questioning brow, and Henry held back another growl.

"What do you want, Tesla? Why are you doing this?"

Tesla examined the nails of his free hand before answering. "I want to kill them. The princess has this ridiculous and unrealistic sense of honor and morality, and I want to protect her. Besides . . . if these men are members of the Cabal that Druitt and I missed . . . ."

"Oh, so you're doing this to save your ego."

"No, I'm not," Tesla snapped angrily. "I'm doing this for Ariel. I want to keep her safe and remove any threats to her safety."

"Why?"

Tesla opened his mouth to reply, but when he had nothing, he shut it again and looked away. "I don't know," he said quietly. "She's caused this . . . chivalric nature in me, and I don't understand any of it. Ariel came to us as a damsel in distress and it's triggered all of this protectiveness."

Henry watched him for a moment before nodding and continuing the search. It took another five minutes, but he found her scent of ice and apples, and he followed, Tesla only a few steps behind. They walked through the district, senses sharp.

Another ten minutes passed when they heard a pair of men talking.

"Think the boss is gonna want another cryo?"

"Prob'ly. He had high hopes for that one. Do y'know what went wrong?"

"Shit no. But I did hear the boss say something about wrong drug ratios."

"Too bad we dunno what that doc did for that Ashley chick."

One of them laughed. "Yeah! Then we'd have our own army of brainwashed freaks!"

Henry glanced at Tesla as the other man joined in with his own laughter. A moment later, they heard a door open and close and they poked their heads around the corner. The walkway between the two warehouses was empty and Henry pushed Tesla towards the door. When the former vampire gave him a questioning look, Henry just rolled his eyes."

"Look, Magneto, unless you wanna watch me strip, go . . . over there and make sure no one is around the other side."

Tesla didn't move for a moment and Henry suddenly got real worried the guy might actually want to see him strip, but when he said, "Stop calling me that," the werewolf mentally sighed. He waited until Tesla was on his way to make sure no one was going to ambush them from behind before he slipped off his clothes and shifted. Henry moved to the door and waited for his partner to return.

"No one. Can we do this now?"

Henry nodded, and Tesla used his relatively new ability to blast the metal door down. He sauntered in, briefly regretting his inability to turn into a vampire for maximum carnage, and the huge wolf man followed, a low rumbling growl emanating from his muzzle.

"Good day," Tesla said with a smile. "It's my understanding you gents had the opportunity to spend some time with a lovely woman this morning." He looked around, counting. Only eight men. This was going to be easy. "Beautiful blond hair, gorgeous brown eyes . . . had this lovely ability to control ice. Ringing any bells?" The men simply stared at them. Tesla gave a weary sigh. "Honestly, have all the villains turned to crap? What is with all of you? Idiots, every single one of you. It must be so difficult to find good minions nowadays." He paused a moment more. "Are you just going to stand there? I have a princess to return to." Again, he paused, and again he sighed deeply. Then, he flicked his hand and an IV stand impaled one of the men, killing him in a spray of blood. "Finally, some action," he said happily when the others came to their senses and pulled their guns.

Henry charged forward, grabbed one of them and ripped. The sounds of bone snapping, ligaments tearing, and the squish of organs as they fell to the floor acted as a catalyst for him. Henry wanted to kill faster, tear into them, and make them pay. The coppery scent of blood filled the room as ripped apart two more. The sounds of screams and gunshots filled the air, and he simply registered the sickening sound of a body crunching as Tesla pinned the man under a metal table. Henry took his time with the last one. He stalked him, forcing him towards the back wall. The man pointed his gun, hands shaking and swallowed convulsively, before pulling the trigger. He gave a chocked scream when no bullet left the barrel. His back hit the wall and he eyes, filled with fear flicked to the side, no doubt looking for an escape. Henry took in a deep breath, taking in the scent of blood, fear, and pure adrenaline. His lips pulled back from his teeth as he dug his claws into the man's stomach, ripping him open.

Tesla came to his side, wiping his hands on his handkerchief. "Wow. I didn't think you could do it."

Henry simply looked at him and turned to leave.

**xxx**

When the pair returned to the Sanctuary, Henry had gone to wash off the blood while Tesla went to find Magnus. He had gone to her office first, and was lucky enough to find her there. She looked up at him when he entered.

"They were Cabal," he said without preamble.

"What?"

"The men who hurt Ariel. They were Cabal."

"I thought you and John destroyed them."

"We got the majority. From what we heard, they were trying to make more super abnormals, but they didn't fully understand what needed to be done. I don't think the leader was there. Perhaps your protégé can help Ariel remember who he was so we can find him."

Magnus was silent for a moment. "You're taking this rather personally."

"Yes, I know. The pup has already brought it up." Tesla really didn't want to go through that again, and especially with Helen, so he turned and left. He walked down the hall to the room Ariel was staying in and knocked lightly on the closed door. A moment later, the door opened and Ariel looked up at him, slightly surprised.

"Nik. Hi."

Tesla grinned at the new nickname. "Hello, Ariel. I simply wanted to let you know I . . . took care of those bastards who hurt you."

"Oh." She looked away. "Um, thank you?"

He placed his hand under her chin and lifted her face, running his thumb along her bottom lip lightly. "It was my pleasure." His hand dropped and bowed slightly before walking away.

* * *

**AN:** Woah. Nik just kinda took over there. Probably cuz I wouldn't let him in on the last chapter. Lol. Okay, this is the last chapter, but there will be an epilogue to give a reason why Ariel stays.


	5. Epilogue

**AN:** Again, many, many thanks to all of you. I couldn't have finished this without you. I now bring you the epilogue of Frost. Oh, one other thing. This epi is a wee tribute to one of my favorite movies when I was younger. xD

* * *

As soon as the amorphic creature was fully in the containment room, Ariel turned on her ability full blast and froze it. She paused, making sure the thing was incapacitated before she removed her hand from the wall and stepped out of the room. Henry caught up and slammed the door shut, locking it. Ariel was breathing hard, her heart racing. Quite the adrenaline rush, trying to capture some giant people eating amoeba.

She gave a startled yelp when Henry picked her up and swung her around. "We did it!" he said with a laugh. When he set her back down, she stared at him for a moment before grinning and throwing her arms around his neck.

"That was incredible! I've never done anything like that." She paused and leaned back a bit to look at his face. "Well, except those summers I spent with my uncle back in Texas. We had to do some herding on occasion."

"But you probably didn't have anything that could eat you in a horrific way."

"Nope. The sheep never tried to eat me."

When Magnus approached, the two separated and stood next to each other as they faced her. "You performed wonderfully, Miss Hawke," Magnus said with a smile. "I know I said I wanted you to stay for observation, but I think you'd make an excellent addition to the team. We could use your help."

When Ariel didn't immediately answer, Henry leaned towards her slightly. "You should say yes," he said quietly. She looked at him, and he smiled. "Please?"

Ariel watched him a moment before returning her attention to Magnus. "Okay!"

"We'll have your things moved to more permanent quarters."

Ariel nodded and thanked her, and Henry took her hand. "Come on, we'll find you a room," he said as he led her away.


End file.
